Unity Technologies New Parental Leave Policy

Let’s face it, it’s not easy to balance work when starting a family. Historically, that has meant postponing, or even ending, the mother’s career, which has had a significant impact on women in the workforce and equality in the office. We get it, and we’ve been trying to approach a solution that will help even the playing field between men and women and eliminate the stigma of taking time off to raise newborns. With that in mind, I’m thrilled to announce a new parental leave policy in our US offices based on the idea that parenting is not a gender-specific event, but rather a shared responsibility.

Starting on January 1st of this year, US employees who are the legal parent of a newborn or newly adopted child can take 12 weeks fully paid leave. Further, since I know the transition back to work with a new child can be difficult, new parents will have the option to work part-time for an additional 8 weeks, while earning full-time pay. This policy takes a page from the handbook of countries such as Sweden – one of the most gender equal countries in the world – where men take a distinctly active role in raising children. Whether a mother, father, same sex or heterosexual couple, birth parent or adopter, we want all our employees to have the flexibility and time to bond during this important life event.

I’m excited to see that we already have Unity employees taking advantage of this new policy. Ville Vatén, a Product Director at Unity who’s currently on paternity leave, is a great example. “Kids are young only once and the time spent with them is extremely valuable,” according to Vatén. “Unity’s parental leave policy has been a big financial help for my wife and I during these months and has also contributed to our overall work-life balance, giving us both the flexibility to take charge of home when needed.”

We are committed to fostering an equal and inclusive work environment at Unity, and hope that this new policy will give all our employees the opportunity to pursue their career goals while balancing their personal life. While this specific policy extends to our US employees, Unity’s guidelines have been updated across all our offices globally, and we offer generous parental leave in countries where we operate. Spending time with newborns can be critical to the wellbeing of both children and their families, and I encourage all our new parents to take advantage of the policy.

What needs to happen is that companies that do not provide such benefits need to lose valuable employees to companies like Unity. There needs to be a direct, easily seen reason why this is a good thing for companies to do.

I have two lovely girls and the sum total of the parental leave I have been able to take to spend with them is close to two years, and I still have days left for a few more 8 week summer holidays. Yes, I am from Sweden but I don’t say this to gloat only to make a point and that is that taking parental leave is a win, win, win thing. You won’t have time to think about work, your kid will know who the useless bloke without food is, and when you get back to work your boss will wonder who the bearded man with a silly smile on his face energising the whole office is.

I can only congratulate you Unity employees for working at a company that not only develop a great product but also gets this.

I think this is awesome- I’m glad to see companies provide for new families! Very well done.

My question is this:
How do you compensate individuals and families that actively choose to not have children?
Not every individual may want to get married, and likewise, not every person may want to have children?
Is there a way that keeps equality amongst those that may never want to be a parent?

That’s a silly idea, of course — kids cost money. Since you’re focusing on the $$, do some math, and figure out how much of a financial drain having a kid is. Then be happy you’ll own a 2nd house while all they have is a child graduating from college. Suckers!

This is a great move by Unity that I hope many other companies take notice of. This is how to take care of the next generation and your current generation of employees; it’s being a good corporate citizen.

For those who don’t know how poor the general parental leave policy is in the US, I suggest that you watch John Oliver’s ‘Last Week Tonight’ segment about Paid Family Leavehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIhKAQX5izw

That’s really great! However, speaking as a dad of 3, I can tell you I’d last about a week trying to take care of newborns fulltime. Then I’d be back to work, dealing with easier things like demanding clients and impossible deadlines.